Knitting machine



ct. 3l, 1939.. A.. wlGLEY KNITTING MACHINE Filed Jan. 15, i939 4 Sheets-Sheet l Inventor I L M l Gd. 31,1939. A, WlGLEY 2,178,317

KNITTING MACHINE Filed Jan. l5, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 2.

Fig. 9. IZ l w 9 Fig. 8. I 12 l/ l/j L 9 k 11 jg 10 F I* I /H Inventor ,jf i `lll Get. 31, 1939.L A. WIGLEY 2,178,317

y KNITTXNG MACHINE Filed Jan. 13, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Inventor rlhzz' Wkfyley,

Oct. 3l, 1939. A. wlGLEY 2,178,312?

KNITTING MACHINE Filed Jan, 13, 1939 4 Sheets-snee@v 4 Patented Oct. 31, 1939 Unirse stares PATENT OFFCE Application `lanuary 13, 1939, Serial No. 250,834 lin Great Britain June 25, 1937 12 Claims.

This invention is for knitting machines and in particular relates to circular rib knitting machines of the type comprising two needle beds located at an angle to one another. It is primarily, but not exclusively, concerned with circular rib knitting machines of the cylinder and dial type, and has for one object to provide means whereby such machines may be readily equipped with outside sinkers.

Another object is to facilitate the production of fabric, including transferred needle loops, such for example as a welt on rib knitting machines.

The invention provides a circular rib knitting machine of the type comprising two needle beds located at an angle to one another, having a series of independently movable verge-formingA elements associated with one or each needle bed for co-operation with the needles thereof. To permit of the use, in a machine of the type reierredy to, of sinkers, web holders or like fabricengaging elements working between the needles of one bed from the outside thereof, it is desirable to space the verges of the two beds a substantial distance apart to provide room for said sinkers or the like, whereby the use of the margin of one of said beds as a verge is inhibited. Thus, for example, in a machine of the cylinder and dial type equipped with outside sinkers, it is desirable to reduce the diameter of the dial, in order to provide room for the inward advance of the sinkers, to an extent such that the periph-y ery of the dial is not capable of use as a verge in the formation of loops by the dial needles. According to a feature of this invention the vergeforining .elements before referred to are provided in conjunction with such needles. These elements may be moved to an advanced position at any location where such needles are retracted to draw new loops and to cast off old loops, so that yarn-engaging extremities with which said elements are provided serve as a verge in a manner similar to that in which the periphery of the dial usually serves. Such elements, being capable of retraction, do not obstruct the inward advance of the sinkers or the like.

It is particularly desirable that sinkers shall be provided .in a machine wherein the rib needles are transfer needles adapted to transfer their loops to the needles of the other bed (such as the cylinder), for such sinkers or webholders may be employed tc tension the rib loops prior to transfer. rThe present invention is therefore particularly applicable to such a machine.

In order that the invention may be better understood it will now be described in detail, as

applied to a rib knitting machine of the cylinder and dial type which is equipped with outside sinkers or web-holders, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a planview of so much of the dial 5 cam and sinker cam caps and associated parts of the said machine at onefeeding position of a multi-feeder machine as is necessary to illustrate the appliction thereto of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 10 II, 1I in Fig. 1 and showing the yarn supplying means at one feeding position.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the cams for the cylinder needles at one feeding position and at one transfer station.

Figs. 4 to 6 show various stages in the knitting operations and illustrate the function of the verge-forming elements.

Fig. '7 is a perspective view corresponding to Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of one verge-forming element.

Fig. 9 is an end elevation thereof looking in the direction of the arrow A in Fig. 8, while Fig. k10 is a plan View of said element.

Fig. 11 is a perspective view showing a dial needle in conjunction with one of said vergeforming elements.

Fig. 12 is a detail view of the peripheral edge of the dial.

Figs. 13 and 14 are respectively a side elevation and a plan of a dial needle, while Fig. 15 isa detail view of the parts enclosed within the rectangle B in Fig. 1 and illustrating the transfer operations.

The machine comprises a tricked needle cylinder l and a tricked dial 1. The former is equipped with latch needles 3 operated by the cams indicated at l in Fig. 2 and grouped under the bracket l in Fig. 3. These cams shown in Fig. 3 40 comprise transfer cams and knitting cams. In the case of a multi-feeder machine such knitting cams are provided at each feeding position or knitting station (as are also the appropriate cams for the dial) and the transfer cams may be pro- 45 vided at one or a plurality of transfer stations.

In the tricks 32 of the dial 2 there are dial needles 4, and associated with f each of them there is a verge-forming element El. This vergeforming element consists` of a blade-like part 50 l@ provided at its outer end with a channelshaped part Il and at or near the other end with an operating butt l2.

As isfshown in Fig. 11, the blade part lll lies alongside the stem of the needle fl and said needle 55 works within the channel or U-shaped part Il. The extreme end face Il of said part functions as the verge.

It may here be mentioned that in order to guide the verge-forming elements adequately one side of each dial trick is cut somewhat deeper, as is indicated at 32' in Fig. 12, and each element 3 is provided with a part (lying below the chain dotted line e in Fig. 8) which is received in said deep trick portion 32. It will further be seen from Figs. ll and 13 that approximately the outer half of the length of each dial needle is reduced in width to permit it to slide in the channel portion Il of the associated verge-forming instrument 9, leaving a shoulder 36 at the under edge of the needle.

It will be seen from Fig. 2 that the needle cyl? inder is provided with outside sinkers or web holders 6 mounted in a tricked sinker ring 5 and operated by suitable cams, hereinafter described, in a sinker cam cap 8. These sinkers are provided with a nose or edge 3l' over which the cylinder needles 3 draw their loops, with a holding down throat 38, and with a neb 39 above the latter. It may here be mentioned that in casting off the cylinder needle loops the verge l5 of the cylinder is employed but that in order to provide room for the forward advance of the sinkers 6, particularly at the transfer station E, hereinafter referred to, the periphery 31 of the dial is out back to an extent which inhibits its use as a verge for the dial needles 4. Hence the provision of the verge-forming elements in association with the dial needles.

Assuming that the machine is of the kind in which the needle beds rotate (e. g., in the direction indicated by the arrow C in Fig. 1), the said rotation causes the butts 21 of the dial needles to traverse a rest track 26 which brings them to the clearing cam 25 at which said needles clear and, subsequently descending the stitch cam 23, said dial needles take thread from a feeder such as i6 (Fig. 2) and knit, being thereafter slightly projecting to the track 26 by cam 24. Simultaneously the cylinder needles clear at cams 50, 5| and knit at cams 52, 53. Fig. 4 shows the cylinder needles 3 and the dial needles 4 in the rest position, holding the previously-formed loops c and d, and also shows the elements Sl in the rest position. In the aforesaid rotation the butts I2 of the Verge-forming elements traverse a rest tra/ck 22 at the inside of a filling-in cam 2l and arrive at a cam l1. They are projected by the edge i8 of this cam, simultaneously with the retraction of the cylinder needles and dial needles to draw new loops c and d', as is shown at Fig. 5. This figure further shows that during these movements the old dial loops d are knocked over by the outer ends of said elements 9. These elements 3 reach their outermost position at the apex IS of cam l1, at the time that the dial needles are fully retracted, and it will be seen from Figs. 6 and '7 that the said dial needles draw the new loops d of the fed thread round the outer ends ll of said instruments, the hooks i3 of the dial needles being completely retracted into the channel-shaped parts Il of said elements. Thereafter the elements are retracted 'oy the incline 2f) of the filling-in cam 2l. It may here be mentioned that although for the sake of convenience in Figs. 4 to 7 the cylinder needles 3 have been illustrated as knocking over their loops c and drawing their new lops c over the verge l5 of the cylinder, in practice they draw their loops over the part 31 of the sinkers or web holders 6.

In the aforesaid knitting operations the sinkers or web holders 6 are advanced inwards by cam 43 and are subsequently retracted by a cam 44 operating on their butts, which butts normally travel in a rest track 42.

In that embodiment of the invention which is illustrated, the dial needles 4 are transfer needles. Each needle, at a position substantially coincident with that occupied by the spoon of the latch I5 when open, is provided with a lateral bulge 33 for loop spreading purposes, and at its top edge the bulged portion is provided with a loop-retaining shoulder 33. Additionally the flank of the needle is cut with a oblique groove 34, the depth of which tapers from nothing at or near the top edge of the needle to a maximum at the bottom edge. As will readily be appreciated, if the needle is projected to clear its loop on to the bulge 33 against the shoulder 33 said loop may readily be transxed by a cylinder needle projected up into it within the groove 34. These transfer operations take place at the station marked E in Fig. 1 and are illustrated in detail in Fig. 15. At that station the dial needles which are to transfer their loops are projected by cams 30 and 35 to an eX- tent which is somewhat greater than that to which they would be projected by the clearing cam 25. As a resut, the rib loop on any such dial needle is caught by the shoulder 33 and is pulled outwards, as is the loop f on the central needle 4" in Fig. 15. Simultaneously the sinkers 6 are given an additional inward advance by a cam 40, thereby assisting in the tensioning of the loops. At or about the same time the cylinder needles which are to receive said loops meet the tucking cam 50 and then the clearing cam 5l, and are projected into said extended loops as is the central cylinder needle 3 .in Fig. 15.

Thereafter the dial needles may be retracted to an idle track 29 by a cam 28, leaving the ribbed loops on the cylinder needles, the sinkers being retracted by cam 4l.

The elevated cylinder needles continue round and knit at cams 52 and 53. Mention has al ready been made of the shoulder 3B at the bottom edge of each dial needle 4. Since by reason of the excessive advance imparted to the dial needles at the transfer station by cams 33, 35, said shoulder 36 is brought against the inner end of the channehsh'aped part I! of the associated verge-forming element 9. Therefore the fillingin cam 2l is suitably shaped in the region of the transfer station to permit the elements il to be moved outwards slightly thereat by the shoulders 36 as is shown in Fig. l.

If the return cam 28 is in operation the dial needles which have transferred their loops are returned by it to an inner inoperative track 29 whence they may be restored to activity again by the introduction of cam 3U. These cams 30, 35, and 2S may be placed under the control of selective mechanism and may for example be bolt cams. Alternatively the dial needles may be selected to transfer, or may be selected from the inoperative to the operative tracks, by selective mechanism. Such selective mechanism is well understood in the art and needs no description herein; it is indicated in chain dotted lines at 55 in Fig. 1. Likewise the cylinder needles may be selected to transfer by selective mechanism, or the cylinder cams 50, 5| may be placed under the control of selective mechanism. This mechanism, being likewise well understood, indicated in chain dotted lines at 56 in Fig. 3.

It will readily be appreciated that if the dial needles are to co-operate with cylinder needles in the production of rib fabric and are to transfer rib loops to the cylinder needles, the operative dial needles must intercalate with the operative cylinder needles and that certain cylinder needles must be restrained from knitting until introduced to activity at the transfer. For example assuming that 1 X 1 rib is to be produced, and thereafter plain fabric (such as may follow a l X 1 welt), every second cylinder needle will be held inoperative while the others co-operate with dial needles intercalating therewith. Every second cylinder needle may readily be held inoperative by providing them with shorter butts than the remainder and by partly retracting the cam 58 to miss said short butts. The dial cams 3B, 35, and 28 being inoperative, 1 x 1 rib is produced on the dial needles and on the long-butt cylinder needles. When it is desired to transfer, the dial cams 3), 35 and 28 are introduced, and the cylinder cam 50 is fully introduced. Hence the dial needles transfer their loops to the previouslyinactive cylinder needles and are themselves rendered inactive by cam 28 while the long butt cylinder needles continue in activity and plain fabric is thereafter produced at one or more feeding positions. It will further be appreciated that instead of a change-over from rib to plain fabric, a change in the character of the ribbed fabric may be made by causing selected or predetermined dial needles to transfer their loops to selected or predetermined cylinder needles pren viously inactive.

By the means herein described, patterns or fancy effects may be produced in the knitted fabric as the result of stitch variation, such as tuck, miss-stitch or iioat effects or/and selective loop transference or/and other changes in the character of the knitting including colour effects occasioned by the supply of yarns of different colours to the needles and the knitting of said yarns selectively.

If desired, the needles may be furnished with butts of different lengths or with additional butts to enable said needles to be selectively acted upon by patterning or selecting mechanism. The patterning or selecting mechanism may, if desired, include jacks in association with the needles, in which case each needle may be provided merely with a single butt as aforesaid. The patterning selecting mechanism may be employed in connection with the needles in the cylinder or the dial or both. The patterning or selecting mechanism may be of any suitable known form now commonly employed in connection with machines of the type concerned.

By automatically controlling and operating the needle operating cams, that is to say, effecting ,changes in the positions of such cams such as by withdrawing them from or putting them into action or adjusting them automatically by means of any conventional or suitable form, welts, rib

fabric, plainfabric, fancy rib fabrics, different overs, jackets or parts therefor, slipovers and the like, which have rib borders preceded by welts and succeeded by body portions or tops, plain or fancy, and to machines for knitting seamless hosiery. The improvements may also be applied to machines adapted to produce so-called Interlock fabric.

A multiple feeder circular knitting machine to which the present improvements are applied may also be furnished with means for rendering all but one or more of the feeders inoperative so as to enable knitting to be carried on at the remaining feeder or feeders.

From the foregoing description it will be appreciated that the verge forming elements are moved in the opposite direction to the associated needles as the latter are drawing loops and casting off. This, however may not necessarily be so, since the said elements may be advanced or/and withdrawn at any other appropriate time except the actual knocking over of the stitches. At certain times, moreover, the elements could be maintained stationary during a knitting operation and, at one or more periods during the knitting of a garment, could even be maintained in the fully advanced position all round the needle circle, according to requirements.

Further, while the elements 9 are shown as working in the same bed as the dial needles they may be mounted in a different bed. Vergeforming elements such as 9 may be provided in association with the cylinder needles, and all or certain of the latter may be capable of transferring their loops todial needles.

I claim:

1. A circular knitting machine of the type comprising two needle beds located at an angle to one another, hooked needles therein for drawing loops in opposite directions, each needle including means for closing the hook thereof, web holders cooperating with the needles of one of the beds, and means for operating the needles to knit, having a series of independently movable verge forming elements associated with the needles of at least the other bed for cooperation in loop formation with the needles thereof, each of said elements having a channel-shaped operative eX- tremity in which the associated needle works, and means for moving said elements to and from Verge-forming positions.

2. A circular knitting machine of the type comprising a needle cylinder, a needle dial, latch needles therein, outside sinkers associated with the cylinder needles, and means for operating the needles to knit ribbed courses and plain courses at will, having a verge forming element for cooperation with each dial needle, each of which elements has a. U-shaped operative outer eX- tremity in which the associated dial needle works, and means for moving said elements one after the other to and from a position whereat theiry said extremities form thread-engaging verges for the dial needles while the latter produce stitches.

3. A circular rib knitting machine of the type comprising two needle beds located at an angle to one another, needles therein whereof the needles in one bed are hooked transfer needles provided with means for closing the hooks, means for operating the needles to knit ribbed courses on needles of both beds and plain courses on needles of one of the beds, and means for effecting a transfer of rib loops from the transfer needles to the needles of the other bed, having a movable verge forming element associated with each transfer needle, each of which'elements has a U-section extremity in which the associated transfer needle moves to knit, and means for moving each said element to a position whereat its said extremity serves as a verge for said needle in rib knitting at the location whereat the associated transfer needle knits.

4. A machine according to claim 3, wherein the transfer means comprises means for projecting the transfer needles to a transfer position at a transfer station, and having sinker-like instruments movable between the needles of the said other bed, a bed for said instruments, and means for projecting said instruments at the transfer station to tension the loops to be transferred.

5. An independent-needle rib knitting machine of the type comprising two needle beds located at an angle one to the other, hooked needles therein each including a hook-closing member, means for operating the needles to knit at at least one knitting station, and means for effecting a transfer of loops at at least one transfer station from needles of one bed to needles of the other, having web-holders associated with the needles of said other bed, a bed for said webholders, means for retracting and advancing them at the knitting station to cooperate with the needles of said other bed in knitting, independently movable verge forming elements for cooperating with the needles of said one bed in the formation of knitted loops, means for projecting said elements to a verge-forming position at the knitting station, and means for holding them, at the transfer station, in a retracted position as compared with the verge-forming position.

5. An independent-needle rib knitting machine of -the type comprising two needle beds located at an angle one to the other, hooked needles therein, means for operating the needles to knit at at least one knitting station, and means for effecting a transfer of loops at at least one transfer station from needles of one bed to needles of the other, said means including means for projecting needles of said one bed, means for laterally opening the loops on said projected needles, means for projecting needles of said other bed through the opened loops, and means for retracting said needles of the one bed to leave their transiixed loops on the projected needles of the other bed, having web-holders associated with the needles of said other bed, a bed for said webholders, means for retracting and advancing them at the knitting position to cooperate with the needles of said other bed in knitting, independently movable verge forming elements for cooperation with the needles of said one bed, each of which elements has a hollow operative end for receiving the hook of a co-operating needle of said one bed, means for projecting said elements to a verge-forming position at the knitting station, and means for holding them, at the transfer station, in a retracted position as compared with the verge-forming position.

'7. In a circular knitting machine of the type comprising two needle beds located at an angle to one another, hooked needles therein each said needle including means for closing the hook thereof, and means for advancing and retracting the needles to knit in succession, the combination of an independently movable verge-forming element for each needle of one bed, which element has an operative extremity of channel section wherein the hooked end of the associated needle works, the internal width of which extremity is slightly greater than the width of the hooked end of the associated needle within it, and operating means for operating said elements one after the other to function as verges for the associated needles in knitting, which said operating means includes means for causing the elements to occupy a projected position as the associated needles are retracted, in knitting, within the operative extremities thereof which projection is to an extent, relative to the retraction of the said needles, that the hooked ends of the said needles are retracted into said extremities, and means for subsequently retracting said elements from the projected position.

8. In an independent needle knitting machine of the type comprising a needle bed, hooked needles therein each said needle including means for closing the hook thereof, and means for projecting and retracting said needles in a knitting wave at a knitting station, the combination of independently movable verge forming elements for said needles, each of which elements has an operative yarn-engaging extremity of channel section in which the hook of the associated needle works, and means for projecting said elements in succession to occupy a projected position while the associated needles are retracted in knitting, in which projected position the said needles draw their loops into the extreme end of said channel section part, and means for subsequently retracting said elements from said projected position.

9. A machine according to claim 8, having the means for projecting the elements arranged to project them while the associated needles are being retracted in knitting.

10. A circular knitting machine of the type comprising a needle cylinder and a needle dial, needles therein, outside web holders of the cylinder needles, a bed for the web holders, means for operating the needles in a knitting wave at at least one knitting position to knit, means for operating the web holders at each said knitting position, having means at at least one transfer position for effecting transfer of loops from dial needles to cylinder needles, a verge forming element associated with each dial needle and movable independently thereof each of which elements has an extremity for forming a verge over which the associated needle may draw its loop, and means for projecting said elements to occupy, at each knitting position whereat the associated dial needles knit, a position wherein the associated dial needles draw their loops over said extremities of the elements as over a verge, and means for retracting said elements from that position, in which machine the operating means for the dial needles includes means for effecting, in loop formation on said needles, a retraction of the said needles relative to the associated elements while the latter occupy a projected position at the knitting position.

11. In a circular rib knitting machine, the combination of two needle beds located at an angle one to another, needles in each bed, means for operating needles of both beds to knit in succession at least one ribbed course at at least one knitting station, means for effecting at a transfer station a transfer of loops of said course from predetermined needles of one bed which knit in said course to predetermined needles of the other bed, means for moving said predetermined needles of the i'lrst bed to an inoperative position subsequent to the transfer, means for continuing the needles of said other bed to knit in succession, independently movable verge-forming ties, and means for retracting them from that position.

12. For a. knitting machine, a verge-forming element consisting of a. blade-like part terminating in a verge-forming extremity of channel 5 section.

ARTHUR W'IGLEY. 

